Another kick in the teeth for the disabled and beneficiaries
I just think this Government’s terrible abuse of beneficiaries is one of the great untold stories of the last 2 dreadful years.
Time and time and time again this Government bash beneficiaries and this penny pinching cruelty while they borrow for tax cuts and corporate welfare is the ugliest of politics…
Support cut as boarder income changes take effect
Families with disabled children are facing reductions in support under new rules that include income from boarders in assessments for accommodation supplements or income-related rent in public housing.
Before 2 March, only income from three or more boarders was included.
Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said, when the change was announced in the 2024 Budget, it was simplifying inconsistent treatment of board and rent payments.
It was expected that of the 8200 households who received the accommodation supplement and have boarders, about 7000 would have a reduction in support, of an average $100 a week.
About 6200 social housing households receiving board payments were expected to be affected, with an average rent increase of $132 a week.
Some families said that boarding situations were commonly used when adult children were living at home – sometimes because they could not move out.
RNZ
…ironically these rules around boarders were brought into law specifically to be used by solo parent beneficiaries so that they could gain some extra income and was picked up by caregivers who used it on adult children living at home.
That the Government is closing this lifeline to hit 13000 solo parent beneficiaries is like what they are doing to the 40 000 ACC recipients who were given welfare while their claims were processed and who are now all in debt to the MSD.
The punitive policy is working!
After crashing the economy by crushing the infrastructure pipeline in 2024 that Labour created causing enormous cascading job loses and 220 000 fleeing the country, beneficiary numbers are exploding…
Beneficiary numbers soar to 12-year high despite government’s reduction promise
Beneficiary numbers have soared to a 12-year high, under a government that promised a reduction.
They were the highest both by volume and percentage of the working-age population since at least the 2013 welfare reforms.
Social development minister Louise Upston said in 2024 – less than three months after taking office – that the government was taking action to “curb the surge in welfare dependency” that ocurred under the former Labour government.
But the most recent Ministry of Social Development data revealed that was yet to take hold.
As of December last year, 427,236 people – about the population of Christchurch – were receiving a main benefit.
RNZ
…this despite the cruelty of new draconian welfare sanctions…
Have benefit sanctions actually worked?
Benefit sanctions have not worked – probably largely because there are not enough jobs for beneficiaries to move into, one economist says.
Rob Heyes, principal consultant at Infometrics, has looked at the experience of benefit sanctions introduced in 2024.
The government introduced a traffic light system alongside financial and non-financial sanctions for beneficiaries who did not meet their obligations.
It affects people on JobSeeker Support or Sole Parent Support who have work obligations, like being prepared for work, and taking part in Work and Income assessments, or social obligations such as caring for children.
f beneficiaries do not meet their obligations without good reason, they are moved to “orange” in the system. If they do not then get back on track within five days, they are shifted to “red”, at which point their benefit can be stopped or reduced.
Non-financial sanctions include such things as going on a course, keeping a record of job searches, having some of their benefit put on a payment card or being sent on community work experience.
RNZ
…those Non-Financial sanctions are rarely ever used…
Just 21 of tens of thousands of benefit sanctions have been non-financial
Just 21 people have received non-financial benefit sanctions since the new traffic light scheme took effect.
That is despite the government at the time describing them as a “very fair and reasonable” way for people to receive their full benefits even when they had not been meeting their obligations.
RNZ
…and hunger is rising…
One in three households struggled for food in past year, Hunger Monitor report finds
The Hunger Monitor is the country’s first comprehensive tally of food insecurity and will serve as a benchmark for annual updates.
It surveyed 3000 people late last year.
From its warehouse in Manukau, South Auckland Christian Foodbank delivered 40,000 food parcels last year and chief executive Ian Foster said that number was climbing.
“I can remember in Covid we were doing 100 a day and we thought how the heck are we doing that, this year we’ve averaged 177 a day.”
He founded the foodbank 18 years ago.
He was surprised to learn one in three households had struggled to afford food in the past year – they did not all turn up at food banks.
The Hunger Monitor also found nearly one in five households, 18 percent, had experienced severe food insecurity in that time.
It was commissioned by the New Zealand Food Network, a collection of foodbanks and food rescue charities. Its chief executive Gavin Findlay said the numbers are startling.
Stuff
…the horror in a land of plenty like NZ is that over half a million Kiwis require food banks per month!
The corporate slop Seymour replaced our healthy school lunches with only further degrades food security in our communities.
This Government has implemented extreme ideological vandalism to the economy and now want to punish those they made unemployed in the exact same way they want to punish the homeless they made homeless!
This isn’t social policy, it’s a revenge fantasy against beneficiaries.
We have become a very cruel people who seem to delight in the suffering of others EVEN IF they themselves are being harmed by the Government’s policies.
This is political polarisation at its worst.
I just think treating the poorest amongst us with such malice while borrowing billions in tax cuts for the wealthy is obscene.
